After a successful season opener at The 25th Passion for Speed event at Zwartkops Raceway, the BMW ///M Performance Parts Race Series returns to the same venue this weekend (6-7 March) where the Turbo Cup will start the 2026 Extreme Festival tour.
Heading into the weekend, Anton Pommersheim holds the early lead in Class A, which will again be eligible to score a full allocation of points, with six drivers entered. Joining him will again be Kashen Naicker, Leon Loubser, Bob Neill, and Nishal Singh, all drivers eager to turn the tables on Pommersheim, who opted to move to the class in the season opener. Naicker showed good pace throughout the season opener, but it really came down to a False Start Penalty that kept him from emerging as the early leader. Loubser, on the back of three consecutive slick-shod class titles, will also not want to let the pair at the front get away too far. Neill’s hopes will be for more pace from his BMW E92 M3 Turbo after the team had a bit of a rushed entry for the season opener, while Singh looked solid in his first Class A outing, driving a winning pedigree BMW M3 E92 Turbo.
However, it is the sixth Class A entrant that could cause a few upsets. While Singh’s car in the hands of Ryan Naicker was victorious in 2025’s third round at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit, it is the drive/car combination that was capable of beating him that weekend that will be looking to dominate this time around, Sav Gualtieri in his BMW F30 V8 Turbo.
In Class B, it will be a two-horse race between Lenard Archer and the reigning two-time Series champion Renier Smith. While Smith holds the lead on the class points table, the lack of entries does not bode well for the final combined Series champion to also become the first Turbo Cup champion. However, it is still early days in the season, and Smith’s year-to-date record already looks better after one round than it did in the two prior years. Rest assured, Archer will not make it easy for him either.
Class C will start the weekend as the biggest Turbo Cup group. All 11 drivers who will line up have competed in the season opener. The top five of Oz Biagioni, Anand Naidu, Bennie Luyt, Varish Ganpath, and Hein van der Merwe will also be back for more. It was Biagioni and Naidu who took the wins in the season opener, but the rest will be eager to share in the Victory Lane celebrations. Ethan Coetzee and Salvi Gualtieri will both be looking to open their accounts for 2026, after their respective misfortunes in the season opener. Nick Naidoo, Nicky Dicks and Wessel Mostert will also be hoping for better fortunes in Round 2. Not to forget Sheldon Chetty, again competing in the BMW G87 M2 while his BMW F82 M4 is still being completed for later rounds.
Craig Herbst and Johan Miller, who traded the wins in the season opener, will again look to head up Class D. Gerald Anthoney and Alan Hilligenn should not be discounted either, both having shown good pace last time. Missing from the line-up will be fourth-placed Ronald Lenters, who had a once-off outing earlier this year. Eugene Gouws and Sayen Moodley are also back, as is Michael Grobler, whose BMW E46 328i Turbo is ready after the fire in Round 1.
With this only being the second round, Biagioni holds a slender lead at the top of a closely-contested Turbo Cup points table,
Saturday’s races, broadcast live via Extreme Festival, are scheduled for 10:35 and 14:25, and will be contested over 10 and 12 laps respectively. Spectator tickets can be purchased at the Zwartkops Raceway entrance gate.